LIMA -- The government of new Peruvian President Pedro Castillo will implement an economic policy that will promote private and public investment, Economy and Finance Minister Pedro Francke said on Saturday.

According to Francke, one of the new government's priorities will be job creation, after the COVID-19 pandemic caused around 2.2 million Peruvians to lose their jobs. (Peru-Economy-New government)

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SEOUL -- South Korea's export hit a record monthly high last month thanks to the global demand recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic, a government report showed Sunday.

The outbound shipment spiked 29.6 percent from a year earlier to 55.44 billion U.S. dollars in July, according to the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy. (South Korea-Export)

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RABAT -- Morocco's economy shrank by 6.3 percent in 2020 amid the COVID-19 pandemic and a bad agricultural harvest, the central bank said Saturday.

The labour market lost 432,000 jobs, state budget deficit increased to 7.6 percent of the GDP, while the public debt rose to 76.4 percent of the GDP, said Abdellatif Jouahri, governor of Morocco's central bank, in a statement released after he presented to the Moroccan king the annual report on the economic situation for the 2020 fiscal year. (Morocco-Economy)

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WASHINGTON -- The U.S. economy grew at a lower-than-anticipated annual rate of 6.5 percent in the second quarter, marking the return to an above pre-pandemic level of overall economic activity, the U.S. Commerce Department reported Thursday.

However, the 6.5 percent gain was considerably less than the 8.4-percent Dow Jones estimate. (US-GDP-Q2)

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JERUSALEM -- The Israeli currency rose to its highest rate in over six months against the U.S. dollar on Friday, according to Israel's central bank.

The exchange rate was set at 3.233 shekels for 1 dollar, compared to a rate of 3.232 that was set on Jan. 19. (Israel-Currency value)